Sociocybernetics (eBook, PDF)

Complexity, Autopoiesis, and Observation of Social Systems
Redaktion: Geyer, Rudolf F.; Zouwen, Johannes van der

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

In an effort to shed light on recent developments in sociocybernetic research, this volume represents recent and advanced thinking in this rapidly developing field. The authors address the core problems in social science caused by increasing societal complexity and analyze the inadequacy of many of the methodological tools still used for grappling with nonlinear, self-organizing systems. Together, the 18 contributors propose elements of a new methodology based on sociocybernetic principles aimed at describing and explaining the growth of societal complexity, the contribution of autopoiesis of societal subunits to more societal complexity, and the new simulation-based methodology needed to observe complex social systems. This unique volume contributes to a greater understanding of sociocybernetics and its uses as a method for researching modern problems of increasing complexity and interdependence.

The first part of the book deals with increasing societal complexity and contains chapters on its overall development, the complexity of brain-environment interaction loops, organizational change, the development of human values, and the increasing interpenetration of societal subsystems. The second part concentrates on a current issue in sociocybernetics: autopoiesis, or self-production. The chapters included in Part II concentrate on embodied cognition, on the applicability of autopoiesis to business firms, on its roots in Aristotelian philosophy, and on the possibility of societal control and steering in democratic societies. Part III, more focused on methodology, discusses the difficulties inherent in observing complex social systems. The chapters deal with the problems of cross-cultural comparative research, simulation of the evolution of social systems, longitudinal simulation of education systems, and the methodological difficulties associated with analyzing the unexpected complexities of mutually interacting nonlinear systems.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 264
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Januar 2001
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313074271
• Artikelnr.: 37816870

Autorenporträt

FELIX GEYER headed the methodology section of SISWO,(Institute for the Social Sciences), and has been retired since 1998. He is an honorary fellow of the World Organization of General Systems and Cybernetics and serves on the editorial board of the journal Kybernetes. Geyer was also executive secretary and member of the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association, He has published extensively in the fields of alienation theory and General Systems Theory/sociocybernetics. JOHANNES VAN DER ZOUWEN is a professor in the Social Research Methodology department at Free University, The Netherlands. He is an honorary fellow of the World Organization of General Systems and Cybernetics and a member of the editorial board of its official journal Kybernetes. He has edited or coedited five books and published numerous articles and book chapters.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface Introduction to the Main Themes in Sociocybernetics Felix Geyer and
Johannes van der Zouwen Growing Social and Complexity Sociophysics and
Sociocybernetics:An Essay on the Natural Roots and Limits of Political
Control Paris Arnopoulos Mind and Brain: A Dynamic System Model Walter
Buckley Management by Complexity:Redundancy and Variety in Organizations
Heinrich Ahlemeyer The Emergence of Societal Information Robert Artigiani
On the Interpretation of Social Subsystems: A Contemporary Reconstruction
of Parsons and Luhman Michael Rempel Autopoiesis Information, Meaning and
Communication: An Autopoietic Approach John Mingers Are Firms Autopoietic
Systems? Lucio Biggiero The Autopoiesis of Social Systems: An Aristotelian
Interpretation Colin Dougall Autopoiesis and Governmance: Societal Steering
and Control in Democratic Societies John H. Little Observation of Social
Systems Implications of Autopoiesis and Cognitive Mapping for a Methodology
of Comparative Cross-Cultural Research Bernd Hornung and Charo Hornung
Social Differentiation as the Unfolding of Dimensions of Social Systems
Jürgen Klüver and Jörn Schmidt The Dynamics of Educational Expansion: A
Simulation Model Cor van Dijkum, Niek Lam, and Harry B.G. Ganzeboom Towards
a Methodology for the Empirical Testing of Complex Social Cybernetic Models
Johannes van der Zouwen and Cor van Dijkum